Come back, Vampire – The Masquerade: Time for a resurrection

In the format Come Back ...! we dedicate ourselves &# 8211; drunk with nostalgia &# 8211; handpicked video games whose return we yearn dearly. In today's issue I muse about the seemingly limitless genius of Vampire: The Masquerade &# 8211; Bloodlines; the second and &# 8211; alas &# 8211; last offshoot of the legendary bloodsucker series.

Suppose I would announce deadly serious at this point that one of the best RPGs of all time is a virtually unknown secret, which was ousted from the collective memory of the player base? A bizarre claim, right? How could a hypothetical masterpiece of this caliber simply disappear under the radar? Well &# 8230; he follow me in the pit of the creative madness, who is called &# 8230; Vampire: The Masquerade &# 8211; Bloodlines! (Insert respect commanding organ music / Bach Toccata and fugue in D minor)

But beforehand I should probably address the elephant in the room: Even if it is by definition in our format games series, I will deal primarily with Bloodlines, the last and (no doubt) best record the short-lived series. Although Redemption, the lead story was a solid role-playing game, but gave away too many corners of potential, whereas his successor qualitatively inverted in 2004 in a very own sphere and pulled out all the stops in terms of RPG elements.

A milestone &# 8230; doomed

At this point, allow me to intersperse some history: The inner circle behind Bloodlines and the founder of the now verschütt previous Troika Games studios were Timothy Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason D. Anderson; just that industry icons stored with the first and second fallout the foundation for later Bethesda driving force together with Elder Scrolls.

Bloodlines, however, was already in tatters for release &# 8211; or to reinforce it with a thematically more appropriate English phrase: It was dead on arrival, which in the case of a vampire role-playing game should be nothing wrong in principle yes. Troika were contractually obliged not to publish her game Half Life 2 because Bloodlines was hoisted on the basis of imagined by Valve Source engine; A later release was out of the question because Publisher Activision threatened the Troika people einzustampfen her studio, as long as they do not throw the game as soon as possible to the market. destroyed two fronts ago it had therefore appear in the shadow of the most anticipated game of the year and was still on top of the weight of its own bugs, the Troika could no longer eliminate lack of funds, buried. A short time later, the studio had then but make tight. Now it's the year 2017 and the title is deservedly an absolute cult game including steadily growing following become.

The fan base is so fond of the game that it tinkers on monumental patches to date, the &# 8211; on the current state &# 8211; iron out the worst mistakes and subtleties devote (like modern, graphic effects) or polish hidden, immature content and unlock. Those haunt has always been around in the source code of the game, but could not be implemented in the final game by the developers. Also the composer of the game, Rik Schaffer, the fans asked at to get a clean version of the soundtrack. This made them even willingly various pieces available that had it not make it into the final game, and now thanks to diligent modders still find their way into RPG.

A truly impressive and informative video for the game &# 8211; with tons of creative and artistic input &# 8211; the YouTuber Ragnarox has produced. Anyone who is halfway of the English language and want to know, do what aspects and facets of a video game to a milestone that should be in here take a look.

From criminal traded under Value Genre

The vampire premise served to almost automatically via silver platter and crying out to be adapted into an award-winning game or movie. It does not want me in the head, why most implementations either teen schlock are à la Twilight, softcore porn à la True Blood / Vampire Diaries or brain recycling à la Underworld. All these cinematic waste banging merrily the stake into the heart of the genre.

The people of Troika of the ways a game in the vampire universe were aware and did their best to force the many ideas by (metaphorical) vice into play, so that it literally bursting at the seams to release. they were in the final meters, finally &# 8211; as mentioned earlier &# 8211; drawn by Activision the monetary plug. Comparisons of Gothic 3 are welcome to be drawn.

All well and good, but what makes the game so special?

I honestly do not know where to start &# 8211; maybe at the beginning: the unique character of the player must assemble at the start of the editor and already here the game scratches that attention to detail that further unfolds later on. seven &# 8211; fundamentally different &# 8211; Vampire genres to choose from, which (like the rest of the game) on the lore of the pen of the same name&-paper role-playing game from the World of Darkness universe based. But the crown of creation and a must-play are undoubtedly the Malkavians vampires. I have no idea on which creative and psychedelic trip, the developers were when they thought up the dialogue for these communities, but the result offers a glimpse into the abyss of madness.

Vampyr: New images of bloody vampire adventure

Unless the players in the character editor creates a Vampire Class Malkavians, he takes the game from a fundamental perspective bizarre true: Those are characterized namely by their completely shattered psyche and perception of the environment from. That means in plain text to the player that he has to deal with numerous features that have a large impact on the gameplay. As a response options in dialogs always dominated by madness lines are offered. Some suggest even suggest that personal avatar is well aware to be merely a character in a video game. Furthermore, the player takes through the impaired perception of his Malkavianers at irregular intervals true strange voices that comment on the gameplay; can be performed on top of it as sweet talks with a stop sign and there is the possibility to be addressed suddenly of television or radio hosts by the respective apparatus.

Gallery Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

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The replay value is absurdly high, since each clan has a completely different gaming experience. Bottom line swells Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines with creativity almost over and thanks to sustained blood transfusion by a loyal fan base (clever analogy for Fanpatches) could resurrect the role-play out of the woodwork and since then more and attract more people into its spell.

Some one may have noticed for sure that I spoke deliberately vague on the content of the game. This is simply because I want to take some of its potential experience anyone anticipated. If one or the other, thanks to my layman's knowledge now blood should have licked he / she / it strike here:

The demise of a vampire is called in Bloodlines as "the final death." Let's hope that this for Vampire: is far occurred The Masquerade. Until then, I put my hope in Dontnods pending RPG &# 8211; Vampyr &# 8230, because the genre is far from bloodless.